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Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Robots Aren’t Taking Our Jobs. Corporations Are.

There’s
a robot in your future. Not one of those cute little labor-saving automatons —
like a “Roomba” vacuum cleaner.

Far
from saving you from doing extra labor, this new wave of robots is being
brought into your workplace to rescue corporate bosses from paying you to work
for them.

Oh,
you might think, not my workplace, I’m not a factory worker — I’ve got a
college degree and I work with my brain, so no contraption doing rote
mechanical tasks can take my job.

But
wait, these are “thinking machines,” implanted with complex neural networks and
super fast algorithmic computers that operate in sync, functioning much like
the cluster of specialized cells in the human brain. These brainy bots have a
fast-evolving ability to watch, listen, and learn on their own, and are even
able to produce and teach other robots.

Not
only are they displacing flesh-and-blood workers on factory assembly lines, but
millions of them are now being moved into professional, managerial, creative,
and other occupations previously assumed to be the secure domains of
higher-educated, higher-paid people… maybe even yours.

To
be clear, it’s not robots that are taking our jobs, but corporate profiteers.

They’re
creating a robot economy in order to displace you and me with inexpensive
machines that don’t demand higher wages or health care, don’t take sick days or
vacations, and don’t organize unions, file lawsuits, or vote for pro-worker
politicians.

It’s
to be a plutocratic utopia designed by and for the corporate elite — and
they’re pushing it hard and fast, hoping we the people don’t wake up until it’s
too late.

Robots
aren’t our enemy — the corporate bosses, bankers, and BSers who own robots are
the ones doing this to us, and now is the time for all of us whom they’re about
to discard to rebel against their socially destructive greed.

OtherWords columnist Jim
Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also the
editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown. Distributed
by OtherWords.org.